I'm on Galveston Island, similar terrain (a few sets of railroad tracks are the thrill of my daily commute). Do it, stop thinking about it and just start searching. My 80 is my daily, BUT, I put a 3" lift on it and I pick my Momma up every Monday morning for a day of playing Mah Jong at Landry's with the old ladies and she threw a fit because it's too hard for her to get up into. So it's my daily every day except Mondays - and Sunday's afternoons because I usually take her for mariachi & margarita night on Sunday's also.
My daily commute is the same, 10-12 miles round trip depending on if I wanna see the beach or bay side of the island. Every single thing that I've had to do to mine so far I've found step-by-step instructions and sometimes videos here on this forum (except reupholstering the seats, bartered for that with my boat upholstery guy). wet floorboards, re-routing sunroof drains, knock sensor replacement, washer fluid issues, power seat drama (had to order the same part 4 times, but only because my husband was man-handling the frickin gear, the part came from someone here that made them), radio replacement, power steering pump, etc...
The window sticker was still in the glove box when I adopted her, she was BOI (bought on the island) so her entire 23 years has been in Texas at least (had her down in South Texas a while, and then around the San Antonio area), so she's lived in 90%+ humidity and salt water air her whole life. I own a surf shop here, and shove totes and boxes and clothing racks in and out of her daily - I dont' have any kids, but I don't think the back doors open up as wide as most trucks do, I always seem to need a little bit more room to shove a box through the door, don't know how easy it'll be getting a kid in and out of a car seat, but once you are inside there is SO MUCH ROOM, that's why I love it so much. It's like driving in a fishbowl, you can see out the windows in whatever direction you look at any time, my Monday car is an '18 Cadillac XT5, I can see NOTHING when I am driving, I hate it. Before I lifted my '80 my Mom loved to drive it for that exact reason, you are aware of everything going on around you.
I have never felt more safe in a vehicle than I have the LC. I've smashed a 400lb wild hog at 5am on the highway, had a head on collision with a kid in a Kia in the "South Texas Christmas Eve blizzard of 2004", destroyed a Mercedes C300 that was drunk and plowed through a stop sign. Very minimal damage to me and my property each time. (I'm a great driver - I've had one ticket in my life, speeding at 16) And actually....every wreck I've ever been involved in was in this car. I only adopted it as MINE in 2015 - but it's been in my family since 2002 ish.
I can throw my stand up paddle board and paddle on the roof, pull our 21ft shallow water bay boat to any boat ramp, haul loads of rocks in the utility trailer or throw my heels on and go for dinner - she's pretty universal.
I am very UN-80 Series-esque and caught a lot of crap when I first popped in here with questions, I like big wheels but hate big tires, I love my step bars because I actually use them - I don't need clearance for anything except flood water when it rains the tide is high and the island floods, I don't drive for long distances the island is only like 27 miles long - one dude told me I "wasn't even using it right". But after I got through all that introductory BS, and folks accepted that I was going to do what I wanted to do it - but that I wanted to do it RIGHT and would appreciate their expertise, everyone was pretty helpful.
I bought a Scout last summer - talk about exhausting, loved the hell out of it, but I didn't have the time that was needed to pour into it. So far, knock on wood, everything that I've done with this vehicle has taken me less than a day. (with the exception of the power seat gear, which took all of a month, but after each attempt, I was able to put the seat back in and use the vehicle while waiting for the part to come in.....again.)
Do it. Get it because you want it, and it will make you happy climbing into it every day. If you decide in a year or 18 months that you don't want to deal with it anymore for some reason, you'll have no problem getting rid of it.
